I recently had the opportunity to design custom wedding stationery for a couple who got married in Michigan in June. Since the groom was from Australia, the couple wanted a design centered around a long-distance letter-writing theme.
I designed the invitation, information page (which included directions to the wedding chapel and directions from the chapel to the reception hall), reply cards, thank you notes, belly bands - and even the outside envelopes, inside envelopes, and reply envelopes, where I printed all necessary addresses directly on the envelopes from my computer.
The main idea of the design was that the invitation would resemble a handwritten letter. We spent a long time looking at different font choices to find the perfect look, and even then ended up replacing the capital S with an S from a different (but similar) font, since we didn't like the capital S that came with the font we chose.
In the top right corner of the envelope, I placed two fake stamps. To get the silhouettes of the couple, I used Adobe Illustrator's pen tool to trace photographs the bride emailed me of their faces in profile. Then, I modified a pattern I'd designed that I liked, curving it around a thin white circle to add decoration to the stamp images. The bride's profile went on a U.S. stamp, while the groom's was placed on an Australian stamp as a nod to their respective home countries. I even Googled how much a first-class stamp cost in Australia, and wrote the correct stamp prices on the top right corner of the stamps to reflect the post in the two different countries. (In case you're curious, a first-class stamp in the U.S. costs 45 cents, while an Australian stamp costs 60 cents.)
Finally, I designed another round stamp image similar to the stamps used at the post office. The circle states their wedding date and the city of the wedding chapel.
I used a stripe of pattern to decorate the bottom of the invitation, information page, reply card, and thank you notes. The lime adds a fun hint of color while also tying back to the lime and blue stamps in the upper right corner. I curved the pattern around their names to decorate the blue belly bands that wrapped around the finished stationery set, and also used the same patterned circles from the stamps as the "check boxes" for the reply cards.
It took even longer than usual to print and assemble everything, since I had to wrap the belly bands around the finished stationery set and I also printed on each envelope. On the main outside envelope, I included the main address (decorated just like the belly bands with a rectangle of blue, thin lime green stripes, and a white rounded rectangle with a hint of the pattern I used throughout the designs decorating either side) and the return address (decorated in a thin lime green rounded rectangle and the same modified pattern).
The actual invitation and reply card was all written in the handwriting font we selected, but I used an all-caps sans serif font in dark gray to write the directions on the information page and to write the addresses on the envelopes. This same sans-serif font was used in the gray round "post office" stamps. For the names, I always used the handwriting font, even for the addresses.
Each inside envelope was printed with the names of the invited guests. The inside envelope had the same lime green pattern design with blue lettering as the return address on the outside envelope. The outside envelope was lined with bright blue, while the inside envelope was decorated with a slightly metallic lime green liner.
The whole stationery set turned out beautifully. The bright blue and lime green are a perfect summer color combination, and they added a fun pop of color against the formal cream-colored paper and envelopes.
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Shameless Plug Time: Love this invitation (or others featured on this blog)? Want something similar (or something completely custom) designed for your event? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.
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